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Sunday, September 7, 2014

Way Too Much Wooly Fun

I spent the entire day yesterday at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival yesterday with my friend Suzy, and we had a great time. It was a perfect September day, blue sky and just cool enough to wear a lacy cowl.

I met Suzy at my writing program this past summer, and this was the longest time we've spent together. We were talking a mile a minute, which turned out to be somewhat of a problem ... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

More and more, I value this event for reminding us of where wool comes from. Animal-sourced yarn is not primarily a manufactured product -- nor is lamb, for that matter. We knit and eat thanks to hard-working farmers. In my last newspaper job, I covered agriculture for Madison's morning paper, and I quickly learned that I could never have made it in farming. No one works harder -- with less job security -- than these folks.

Farmers are also smart -- and often very funny. This fellow above lives on a farm called Queso Cabeza in Olivet, Michigan. We knew right away that this family had Wisconsin roots because the English translation of their name is Cheese Head (Go Packers!).

Suzy and I shared so many laughs, one of which involved these sheared sheep:

I could not help but calling them: Ku Klux Lambs (get it???). I have to add that I am sure that this is purely coincidence and that the owners are wonderful people.

Also, I enjoyed a few moments of fame. I was standing in line at the Briar Rose booth (yes, there was shopping, but that's another post), and the woman in front of me kept looking at me. I checked my fly; it was zipped. After a few moments, she said, "Do you have a knitting blog?" It turned out to be Chicago blogger (with Wisconsin roots), Jodi of A Caffeinated Yarn! Wow! I can tell you that her little boy is even cuter in real life than in blog pics. '

And one other coincidence. We discovered that Suzy's best friend during her childhood lived in the house that I now live in (she hadn't been to my house, yet). Is that weird or what?

So, back to all that chatting. Suzy and I paid no attention to where we parked the car. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful, because we walked almost the entire parking lot before finding my car!

7 comments:

The wool festival looked like so much fun. Loved the story about the Packer's farm....although they lost on Thursday and I think my family has not recovered yet. Very strange coincidences on your trip, glad you had fun.Meredith